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Practical Strategies for Growing a Nonprofit Organization

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Improve Your Productivity with Evernote & Find Things Fast

October 26, 2017
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Books, Evernote, Personal Growth and Productivity

As “Jacks of All Trades,” we in nonprofit work spend some portion of our time each week being knowledge workers. As such, we have to acquire, analyze and manipulate information. Because the volume of information coming our way can be vast and there is often a need to retrieve it down the road, we need a simple system for storing and finding things later. Without such a system, the longer the passage of time that exists between saving and retrieval,…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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Nail Donor Communications with (Print) Newsletters and Watch Your Fundraising Soar

October 15, 2017
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Akubo, Blogs & Newsletters, Books, Donor Newsletters, Fundraising, Marketing

Folks, I have three truths to share with you: 1. Fundraising begins with communications. Get good at donor communications and you will become adept at fundraising. 2. The smallest of organizations can become good at donor communications, particularly donor newsletters. With a few principles under your belt, you can probably put together something that's better than the products of organizations two or three times your size because many are not attending to what works. 3. While emailed newsletters can play…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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A lot of People are Depending for Better Lives on Our Ability to Manage US

September 23, 2017
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Books, Evernote, Nozbe, Personal Growth and Productivity, Software

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). That's what drives so many of us to this work: using our talents and skills to make a difference. And a lot of people are depending for better lives on our ability to manage us, so that we can make the difference they so desperately…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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Grow Personally. Hone Your Skills. All in Just 15-minutes.

September 17, 2017
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Blinkist, Personal Growth and Productivity, Software

Grow personally. Hone your skills. In just 15 minutes. Are you enticed? I just illustrated a strategy advocated by the late Steve Jobs as the right way to introduce a product to an audience. Jobs lived by "the rule of three." He believed that an audience won't remember more than three things, so you should cast your key message in terms of three ways that your product (aka service, proposal, idea, etc.) will help your audience solve its problem. By…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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Are You Getting Paid for Every Nonprofit Mile You Drive?

September 6, 2017
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Personal Growth and Productivity, Software, TripLog

Let's face it: most of us working in the nonprofit world don't have company cars. Fifty-seven percent of nonprofits in the country (almost 900,000 organizations) reported revenues under $100,000 in 2016. (See my prior post on how to grow a nonprofit for a deep dive into those statistics). It's safe to say there are a lot of people driving their own cars on nonprofit business, (which does not include the trips you make to and from work). I count myself…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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Simplify Your Life & Increase Your Productivity with Nitro Pro PDF

August 27, 2017
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Management and Leadership, Nitro Pro, Personal Growth and Productivity, Software

Smaller nonprofits and their staff members need to take advantage of every possible technological efficiency if they are to have any time available to focus on growing the organization to meet its mission. I've previously discussed the benefits of Nitro Pro in compiling documents created with different programs, e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, TIF, PDF, into a single document, such as your board agenda. That's one benefit of using a software product like Nitro Pro. Another is that Nitro Pro can…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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Why I Use Nozbe to Manage Projects and Tasks

August 9, 2017
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Evernote, Nozbe, Personal Growth and Productivity, Software

Why i use nozbe to manage projects and tasks If you're running a small nonprofit, you are likely juggling a heavy load. Under the press of deadlines and unexpected challenges, you can easily forget to do important things, both on the job and in your personal life. You need a way of managing projects and tasks and, ideally, the tool for doing that should be something that integrates with other things you are already using. That's what led me to…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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Ready to Grow Your Nonprofit? Develop and Align 7 Key Elements

August 6, 2017
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Camtasia, Fundraising, Management and Leadership, Marketing, Snagit, Software

Ready to Grow Your Nonprofit? Develop and Align 7 Key Elements You can find many good websites and blogs on the Internet offering excellent information and advice on running a nonprofit. I’ve highlighted a lot of them on my resource page. The challenge is that often the information is not germane to a small organization trying to build capacity and grow. And there are potentially a lot of organizations trying to do just that. How Many Nonprofits May…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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Two Simple Meeting Agenda Assembly / Distribution Strategies to Enhance the Quality of Participation

July 17, 2017
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Books, Evernote, Management and Leadership, Nitro Pro, Software

Two Simple Meeting Agenda Assembly / Distribution Strategies to Enhance the Quality of Participation 1. The Meeting Agenda Assembly / Distribution Challenge As a nonprofit leader, you’ve lived through this scenario, only to have your blood pressure rise and your patience tested severely. Here it is: You arrive at a meeting that you organized. This could be a meeting of your board or it could be a meeting of a committee that you chair. One-third of the participants are on…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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5 Reasons Why Hosting a Houseparty is a Great Fundraising Idea for Growing Your Nonprofit

July 10, 2017
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Akubo, Board Development, Books, Fundraising, Marketing

If there's one fact about philanthropy that has withstood the test of time it's that individuals are the greatest source of donations. As shown in the chart below, individual giving comprised 71 percent of all philanthropic gifts in 2016. What's even more interesting about this fact is that most of the individual donors are not wealthy. Rather, they are people of more modest means without a lot of disposable income. These folks typically make up the base of the traditional…

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By Barbara Hopkins
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